ride through the billowing
fog-banks. At all events, there was no sign of a falter or skip there.

"If only we could get some wind," sighed Jess.

"Might as well wish for the moon," said Jimsy; "the air is as still as it
used to be at noon out on the desert."

"What a contrast between the Big Alkali and this!" cried Jess, half
hysterically. The strain of the white drifting fog was beginning to tell
upon her.

Jimsy looked at her sharply.

"Look here, Sis," he began and was going on when a sharp cry from Peggy
arrested him. At the same instant the _Golden Butterfly_ swerved sharply,
swinging over on her beam-ends almost.

Right in front of them, for one dreadful instant, there loomed the
outlines of another aeroplane. The next instant it was gone. But the
picture of the deadly peril, its outlines exaggerated by the mist, was
photographed in the minds of every one of them.

"We must land somewhere, soon," said Peggy, in rather a faint voice; "I
don't think I could stand many shocks like that. Another inch, and----."

She did not complete the sentence. Her two listeners did not require her
to. It did not take a vivid imagination to have pictured the result of
that "other inch."

CHAPTER XXIII.

OUT OF THE CLOUDS.

Ten minutes or so later, a puff of wind blew the folds of fog apart for a
brief instant. Beneath them Peggy could see a sandy beach and some
scrubby-looking brush. Like a flash she took advantage of the momentarily
revealed opportunity. The _Golden Butterfly_, under her guidance, sank
swiftly, grounding a few seconds later into a bed of soft sand. It was
like lighting on a pillow of down, so gently had the glide to earth been
made.

Shutting off the engine, Peggy took hold of Jimsy's outstretched arm and,
followed by Jess, she jumped lightly out upon the sand. The roar of the
surf, as the big swells rolled upon the beach was in their ears. A
wholesome, stinging tang of salt in their nostrils.

"I wonder where on earth we've landed," said Jimsy, looking about him;
"perhaps this is some enchanted land and we are to face new
perils--dragons or something."

"Well, gallant knight," laughed Jess, in the highest spirits to be back on
the firm ground again--even if it was only shifting sand--"we trust to
you."

"And by my troth," exclaimed the mercurial Jimsy, "ye shall not be
disappointed in me fair damsels. Hullo! an adventure already. Hark!"

Through the smother a dull sound was borne to t